Shariah's Police?

Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor and one of the finest legal minds and essayists of our time, wrote on the occasion that Obama’s amendments would have the effect of establishing here “an international police force immune from the restraints of American law.” He added that, thanks to the Obama executive order:

“This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.”

It appears, however, that pursuant to President Obama’s directive, “red notices” issued by foreign powers against U.S. citizens could result in their apprehension by or with the help of Interpol, and perhaps lead to their surrender to hostile foreign powers. Whether something similar happened in this instance to a Saudi citizen remains to be clarified. But we need toknow: Could the carte blanche inexplicably given Interpol by Mr. Obama lend itself to such abuse against Americans in a future case?

What makes all this particularly worrying is that the Obama administration is currently helping the Saudis and the multinational lobby they host in Jedda, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a longstanding campaign to criminalize expression that offends Muslims. The so-called “Istanbul Process” is inexorably translating into legitimization of shariah blasphemy laws – and a threat to those not only in Muslim nations but in Europe, Canada and even the United States, who flout them.

The more the so-called “international community” accedes to clearlyanti-constitutional restrictions on freedom of expression, the more an international police force is empowered to act in extra-constitutional ways, the more certain it becomes that the Constitution of the United States risks becoming a dead letter. Or at least our Constitution will no longer be “the supreme law of the land,” as its Article VI declares. Instead, we will have conceded an equal, if not superior, place to shariah and put at risk all who dare toresist its tyranny.

Congress needs to enact legislation countermanding Executive Order 13524 and servingnotice that America remains the home of those free to speak their minds, and brave enough to resist Interpol’s – or anybody else’s – efforts to keep them from doing so in what amounts to submission to shariah.